


Alone in the Dark

by TheDragonAndTheHare



Category: Night at the Museum (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Read at Your Own Risk, also kahmunrah is a spoilt brat, it's sad times
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-28
Updated: 2016-11-28
Packaged: 2018-09-02 21:40:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8684308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDragonAndTheHare/pseuds/TheDragonAndTheHare
Summary: What Ahkmenrah went through from the time he was at Cambridge to when Larry opened finally his sarcophagus.





	

Ahkmenrah first hears of the transfer a few months before it happens.

The night guard, Robert, a friendly old man from the border of Kent, breaks it to him and his family gently a few minutes after they wake up. He spent the rest of the night comforting his mother after it was revealed that the Tablet was going with him. His father paced behind them all night, deep in thought and not saying a word.

Kahmunrah had immediately stormed off, muttering angrily under his breath, when it was revealed that he was to be transferred too. His parents were set to leave Cambridge as well.

Ahkmenrah can hardly believe it himself – he’s devastated to be leaving his family behind. They’ve been together for over four thousand years (a lot of those insufferable, thanks to his brother), that was the purpose of the Tablet, and it’s the only life he knows.

He’s in shock for he first couple of nights, does little more than stand in his open sarcophagus or stay close to his mother. After a while, he asks his mother to sing for him, wanting to ingrain her voice in his memory. Sometimes he joins her, other times he just keeps an ear to her chest, listening to her heart, one of her hands holding him tight and the other stroking his hair as she hums. Ahkmenrah knows he’ll miss her the most.

Ahkmenrah spends a fair amount of time studying with his father in the library at Cambridge, an activity they had always enjoyed together. In that library they had learned English, learned what had happened in the four thousand years they were sealed in their tomb, and, for the last time for what surely would be a while, they learned about what their new homes were going to be like.

Robert told them where Ahkmenrah and his brother where they were going just a few weeks before they were due to leave. Kahmunrah was on the poor man’s back for the months leading up to then, as he was the only one who knew what happened to the College at night, and thus the only one who could bring them information. His position, though, meant it had been difficult for him to get it

Ahkmenrah was set to go to the American Museum of Natural History; his brother would be going to one of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution. Kahmunrah was greatly angered by the fact that he would be going to another museum entirely. Their parents would be staying within the country, to be put on display at the British Museum. These were going to be their new homes for quite some time.

Their last few weeks together were tinged with grief as the parting day drew nearer. Ahkmenrah tried to fathom the thought of being alone, the only one that would be brought back to life. But his mother didn’t let him keep that thought in his head for long, insisting on doing everything they could together while they still had time. The family, along with a begrudging Kahmunrah, makes their dwindling hours the best they can.

And then, their last night arrives. Kahmunrah skulks off somewhere, but Ahkmenrah keeps close to his parents. They hug, they sing, and they reminisce. For a while he just looks at both his parents, wanting to remember every last detail he can, because who knows when they’ll be reunited, if ever? And then there are tears, from his mother, from himself, and, for the first time in a long time, from his father. His brother gets angry, kicks at a wall, but it only makes him angrier when he’s hopping around because he hurts his foot. They all laugh a bit at that.

Before dawn, before they stow themselves away, they embrace one last time. His mother touches her face, gives him a kiss on the forehead and tells him she loves him. She even manages to give his brother a kiss, too. Through tears she tells him not to be scared, and that they will be together again soon.

His father gives him some assurance as well, looking very stoic even though Ahkmenrah knows he must be feeling just as frightened.

Robert helps each of them back into their wrappings and sarcophagi before the sun rises. His eyes are red, Ahkmenrah notices, but he doesn’t mention it. He thanks him for his friendship and wishes him a happy life, and Robert wishes him good luck, too, before closing the lid.

The last thing he hears is Kahmunrah shouting that he should get a turn with the Tablet, and then he dies.

*~.~*

The first thing Ahkmenrah is aware of is the dark. He can sense it before he opens his eyes, and it feels crushing. The next thing, his wrap is _tight_ , much tighter than what it was when he left Cambridge. He can barely move, and he suddenly feels like he’s suffocating. And then his sense of gravity comes to him, and he realises his laying on his back, contrary to the standing position he had before.

The only sounds he can hear are his breathing, and his heart pumping. But then, slowly, a little sound does begin to seep in. There’s screaming, roaring, even the trumpeting of an elephant. He realises he’s in the Museum now, and chaos is reigning outside as _everything_ comes to life for the first time.

Ahkmenrah shouts, trying to get someone’s attention, but no one comes. He tries in several different languages, despite knowing that the official language in the United States is English. He shouts for hours, but no one comes for him. He panics as the hours draw on and the darkness remains, until eventually the sun comes up, and he’s dead once more.

The same thing happens when he wakes up the next night. His shouts are background noise in the din. Everything is dark, there’s nothing but him and the wretched dark and he screams for help in all the languages he knows but still, no one comes. And the hours, the nights pass on; he comes to hate his existence that he should be the one to wake up, stuck in his sarcophagus, while his family lay dormant, without knowing, without _being_. He desperately wishes he could join them in that.

Some nights he sings. Some nights he cries. When he finally manages to get his wrappings a little looser, he tries pushing off the lid, but it’s too heavy for one man. Some nights he dreams, or else just remembers his memories incredibly vividly. Some nights he talks out loud to himself. Some nights he’s quiet.

And for years, he’s just alone in the dark.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, guys ^_^ Had to get this thing out so I could concentrate on other things.


End file.
